KAOS

Have you ever noticed that people who have a problem with "interracial dating" are just plain fugly? Here's today's top tip, kids: hot boys want hot boys, regardless of their race, and if you look like Shrek, you'd better lower your expectations, and stop blaming that hot white boy for getting his claws into the hot brotha you can't have.

Zeric Seymor-Armenteros

Oh oh - here we go again. A black guy has come out and said that he prefers white guys to "people in the African American community."

In this case it's a model called Zeric, interviewed on vlog Pillow Talk. Cue a tsunami of apoplectic outrage from The Righteous Brothas (you know - those self-appointed righteous guardians of black manhood, who think it's their job to police who fucks who) on blogs and vlogs all over the World Wide Web. Because, you know, this is America, and The Righteous Brothas don't believe in personal preference. Despite interracial marriage being legal in all US states since 1967, some people still can't break out of the "stick with your own kind" mentality. A Brotha's gots to be with a Brotha, and if he isn't, you can bet The Brothas (or that high priestess of hate, Jill Scott) will have something to say about it.

Remember when American news anchor Don Lemon came out? Shortly after that, the news that his boyfriend was white shocked and appalled certain quarters of the black gay community. Read, if you dare, the comments sections of blogs like Rod 2.0 and Living Out Loud with Darian, where you'll discover a tiny, narrow-minded world of race-baiting haterade.

Here's a simple truth: guys who have a problem with interracial relationships are, more often than not, fugly trolls past their use-by date.

Here's an another simple truth: The single most valuable commodity in the gay world is sex appeal, and that overrides race. If you're an ugly troll - say, the revolting love child of Kanye West and Cee Lo Green - you're just going to hate the fact that that hot white boy has got the hot black boy you can't have - and never will have. Because the sad fact is, even if that hot black guy was into the brothas, he still wouldn't want you, Shrek. He'd want Tyson Beckford. As Zeric says, "I love my black boys" - just not those pearl-clutching queens who sit in judgement on others.

This fact is bourne out by Zeric's haters. Lord ha' mercy, these queens are f**kin' ugly. Face it kids, righteous ain't pretty. That's why the world of blogs and forums is heaven for the racial separatist - the kids who look like the odious queens in the I Hate Zeric video, look like that.

One of the video's contributors says of Zeric, "Models should be seen and not heard." Oh, the irony!

They don't really hate Don Lemon's boyfriend, or the hot white boys Zeric is hookin' up with. What they hate is the ugly reflection in the mirror, and the fact that Zeric and Don just don't want them.

a news compendium

with a gay bias
WEEKLY | Issue 110 | January 2012 | FREE | be.told.

OPENING SHOTS

< Baltimore Ravens star Brendon Ayanbadejo flexes for the NoH8 Campaign.

||||| Sexual racism, or "It's just a preference"?

||||| Why gay parents may be the best parents. (Maybe because there isn't a handful of stories in the press every week about them shooting/stabbing their kids when the marriage goes wrong?)

> Why this married couple of 22 years - with four children - is facing deportation from the USA. Watch a CNN video report here.

US & CANADA NEWS

||||| "Bishop" Eddie Long is back in the pulpit. Lock up your sons!

< North Carolina pastor Patrick Wooden: Gay men "have to wear a diaper or a butt plug just to be able to contain their bowels". Charming.

||||| George Clooney on GBLT equality: (It's) "the last leg of the civil rights movement."

||||| Seventy-eight mayors announce support for gay marriage - was your mayor one of them?

||||| Jumping beyond the broom. "Why black gay and transgender Americans need more than marriage equality."

> Queer Rising activists arrested at protest in front of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's Manhattan office. The group told Towleroad, "Every night in New York City, approximately 3,800 youth are without stable shelter, but the state and city only provide funding for fewer than 200 beds for these youth."

||||| Student newspaper calls for death to gays.

||||| Bullying widespread in U.S. elementary schools. "Study finds teachers unprepared to deal with gender expression and children from gay families."

< Indiana youth group launches gay pride plate.

||||| Bradley Manning: How his fate will be decided.

||||| Openly gay White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Washington.

>Mike Tidmus, the GBLT activist and blogger, is dead. He was 60.

< Twinkie maker Hostess Brands files for bankruptcy.

UK NEWS

< Victory as Islamic extremists are found guilty of hate crimes; Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be killed. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 makes it an offence to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.

||||| Now for the bad news: Sharia law is being used increasingly by UK Muslims.

||||| The Conservative party shows its true colours as MPs threaten gay marriage rebellion. Readers may remember Conservative leader David Cameron's cringe worthy interview on gay equality.

> Teachers need more equality training, Schools Out campaign declares.

||||| The joys of automated announcements. "This is an emergency. We will shortly be making an emergency landing on water," isn't one of them.

||||| Gay ~~journalist~~ plagiarist Johann Hari at least has the decency not to go back to The Independent following his suspension.

EUROPE NEWS

< Costa Concordia disaster: From space, no one can hear you scream.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: In pictures.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Low key reaction from the Italian government.

> Costa Concordia disaster: Texan gay couple Blake Miller and Steve Garcia describe their ordeal. Video report.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Footage emerges of Costa Concordia staff telling passengers to return to their rooms as the ship sinks.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Five survivors recount their frantic escape.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Searchers blast holes to access shipwreck.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: More bodies found in submerged restaurant.

< Costa Concordia disaster: Brother of waiter clings to hope he will be found alive.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: A tragedy with a dozen nationalities.

> Costa Concordia disaster: Underwater.

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Rescue diver video shows inside capsized cruise ship.

< Costa Concordia disaster: What next for the ship?

||||| Costa Concordia disaster: Marine paradise threatened.

||||| SWEDEN: EU demands Sweden lift forcible sterilization of transgender people...

...And 21-year-old transgender man Georg Elfvelin puts a face to Sweden's shame.

||||| NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam's Chief rabbi suspended for anti-gay statement.

< RUSSIA: Activists arrested in Moscow's Red Square; Russian authorities want to ban public acts that "promote homosexuality".

> RUSSIA: Orthodox Christians - in this picture, soldiers - celebrate Epiphany by jumping into freezing water, on 19th January 2012.

AFRICA NEWS

||||| UGANDA: 'Kill the gays' bill dead, Ugandan ambassador to the US claims.

||||| ZIMBABWE: Constitutional draft excludes language protecting gay rights.

SOUTHERN ASIA NEWS

||||| INDIA: Police interrupt Mumbai Pride fundraiser...

...But organisers promise Mumbai Pride - which kicked off on Saturday - will be bolder than ever.

< INDIA: Man versus bull.

||||| INDIA: In Meghalaya, women rule, and men are suffragettes.

ASIA-PACIFIC NEWS

||||| TAIWAN: Election blow for GBLT equality. "The defeat of Tsai Ing-wen diminishes hope for more LGBT rights in Taiwan."

||||| AUSTRALIA: Mother jailed for raping daughter as part of "bizarre sex education".

> INDONESIA: Concrete balls versus train surfers.

< SOUTH KOREA: Five people are dead following an oil tanker explosion in waters north of Jawol Island.

BODY & MIND

> This woman is drinking a lethal barbiturate that will end her life; Oregon's Death with Dignity Act permits euthanasia.

||||| The tyranny of unwelcome noise. "Honking horns. Household appliances that beep. Other people's music. Should we turn down the volume, or get better at concentrating in a noisy world, asks historian Lisa Jardine."

||||| Trouble sleeping? Schizophrenia's gonna get ya.

||||| Drink too much? Hop on the wagon for two days a week and give your liver a fighting chance.

< Locker rooms: Nudity rules or cover up? "Why do some guys and girls hide under a towel and others let it all hang out in the changing rooms?"

||||| Breaking news! Poppers (taken by 96% of gay men) cause AIDS! OMG!

> Gay teen Sam Barton: "I'm a Botox addict and only 19."

||||| What is it like to be asexual?

||||| Justin from Justin's HIV Blog on HIV criminalisation:

THE PLANET

||||| Dolphins and whales engage in rare interspecies play; video.

||||| Star dogs!

||||| Light pollution: Is there a solution?

WEB & GADGETS

||||| SOPA: Why the Internet went black.

||||| SOPA: Let's talk about the benefits of illegal downloading.

< Megaupload file-sharing site shut down by US prosecutors - hackers retaliate.

||||| Hacker targets Australian Grindr; reveals users' pseudonyms and passwords.

> Global brainwasher Apple is now worth more than Greece. Still, the bigger they are...

||||| Gay Star News - a new "global gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender news and entertainment site" - has officially launched...

...Whilst another goes dark. UK Gay News has provided comprehensive coverage of GBLT issues around the globe over the past 10 years, and has been an invaluable resource in compiling the weekly ka-os|theory news compendium.

||||| Headphones are a threat to your life. Listen up!

< The collapse of Kodak: "Kodak was in my blood".

||||| The collapse of Kodak: Top photographer recalls Kodak's fading moment.

||||| Autofocus and the importance of "defocusing". "The human eye's ability to focus is a complex function even advanced cameras struggle to replicate. Not for much longer..."

PRINT & VISUAL

> DC Comics launches six new titles to replace cancellations and unveils new logo.

||||| Or maybe Class Comics The Long Road To The Sea is more your cup of tea?

< Rikki Beadle-Blair talks about his new book, What I Learned Today. You can read excerpts here at ka-os|theory.

||||| Literary Mixtape: Dancer from the Dance, an imaginary disco set.

||||| A supercut of libraries in film and television.

STAGE

||||| Gay marriage play 8 will be staged all over the US this year.

> Bruise, a play by John Maguire, opens 24th February in Liverpool, and puts gay domestic violence under the microscope.

< Expecting To Fly opens on 2nd March in Los Angeles; in it, "two men look back on their time together, (and) try to come to terms with what they lost."

||||| Jon Marans play The Temperamentals examines 1950s gay life.

> Review: Sleeping With Straight Men. "Benefiting from slick direction and blink-and-you'll-miss-them scene changes, Sleeping With Straight Men is more John Waters than The Laramie Project, but beneath Larsen's big and brassy characters lies a sharp swipe at the dark exploitative heart of daytime TV."

CINEMA

||||| The Dorian Awards - the annual ceremony held by the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association - names Weekend both best film of the year and best LGBT film of the year. We Were Here was both documentary and LGBT documentary of the year.

||||| The Iris gay film festival announces opening of 2012 competition.

< Rikki Beadle-Blair's Bashment, and ballroom drama Leave It On The Floor are two of the films to have screened over the weekend at the Charm City LGBT Film Festival in Baltimore.

> Brandon Routh goes shirtless in the trailer for new film Crooked Arrows.

||||| Movie characters sing Lionel Richie's Hello. Brilliant.

< Remember AI, The Sixth Sense child star Haley Joel Osment? He's all grown up...

||||| Daniel Radcliffe defends casting as poet Allen Ginsberg.

||||| Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin cast in film adaptation of The Normal Heart.

> Review: J. Edgar. "Soppy sexual politics have overridden real politics in J. Edgar. Hoover was one of the darkest figures in US history but Eastwood and his scriptwriter have forgiven all in a hazy resignation to old age coming to everyone and love being what matters."

< Contestant removed after Big Brother Brazil rape claim.

||||| Michael K Williams - Omar from The Wire - is an American for Marriage Equality.

> When stars collide: Neil Patrick Harris describes his love story.

< Ouch. Mad Men's season 5 poster looks like...

> Ryan Phillipe joins Damages.

||||| Network DVD announce the forthcoming release of the breathtaking, brilliant documentary series The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Unmissable for anyone who loves film or art.

< Jenny Tomasin, the actress, is dead. She was 75. Tomasin played the role of Tasambeker in the 1985 Doctor Who story Revelation of the Daleks.

MUSIC

> JLS release big weepy Proud for annual Sport Relief fundraiser.

< Justin Bieber hits the Toronto Gay Pride Parade with his Mummy.

||||| None of the Jonas brothers are gay. NONE OF 'EM! Got it?

||||| Oh God. Jedward are to perform for Barack Obama. Let's hope it isn't anything like this...

||||| The best lowdown on David Furnish's Madonna rant you'll read. Make sure you don't have anything in your mouth, or you'll choke reading it.

||||| Troubled HMV - the last major music and DVD retailer on the high street - has secured some breathing space from the banks. As The Guardian points out: "A collapse of HMV could be more financially damaging for film companies and record labels than for the group's shareholders."

> Etta James, the musician, is dead. She was 73.

||||| Etta James, obituary.

||||| Etta James, in pictures.

THE SEX BIZ

< There's just something about a hot boy in glasses...

> Planes, trains and double-decker buses: Race Cooper's European adventure!

||||| Erik Rhodes has also been let loose on Europe. Queer Me Now wants to know: Is he a modern day gay version of Pretty Woman?

< "It was romantic, it really was. We had anonymous strangers abusing us, but we were having an intimate moment." Porn couple Samuel Colt and Chris Porter discuss having sex with another couple at Folsom Street Fair.

||||| Whatever happened to Steve Hammond?

||||| OMG! Did Anthony Romero and Austin Wilde break up?

> Boyfriends Trey Turner and Jessie Colter team up for Manhandled.

||||| Brady Jensen and Dario Dolce team up for Bel Ami. Sigh.

< Michael Lucas covers The Fight magazine, talks GLAAD, Seed Money.

> Arpad Miklos puts on a Freddy Kruger mask, strips, for gay indie music promo.

< OMG! Kris Evans and Mick Lovell on horseback!

SPORT

||||| Theo Zwanziger, the Head of German Football Association, has called on gay football stars to come out.

||||| Footballer apologises for "tongue in cheek" homophobic tweet.

> Britain's Gay Footballers - "a new documentary will tackle the issue of homosexuality in British football and the reasons why no players have come out since Justin Fashanu" - is to screen on BBC Three next week.

||||| Rainbows worn at Australian Open in protest against Margaret Court.

||||| Billie Jean King still respects her Margaret Court despite her former rival's anti-gay views.

||||| London boy Louis Smith takes gold at the gymnastics Olympic test event in his hometown, talks about haircuts, religion and growing up, and goes shirtless in new clip for sponsor Lucozade:

< Can't get enough Smith? Here's Louis Smith's guide to the pommel horse, Louis Smith's guide to the parallel bars, and Louis Smith's guide to the rings. (Sorry guys - these clips are only available to UK users. Try YouTube.)

||||| And the London 2012 gymnastics Olympic test event, in pictures.

||||| The Dream Team gets dreamier, as Blake Griffin looks set to strip to his jockstrap in the Olympic locker room.

PARTING SHOTS

> ButtWrap: Buy underwear, save the world.

< Casting Calvin Klein.

< The male models of Milan get a load to the face. Just don't swallow, boys...

||||| Why do we get sentimental over shops of old?

> Sumatrakontor, by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, in Hamburg.

< Greenland Group Suzhou Center, by American architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, for Wuijang, China.

> Sunwell Muse, by Takato Tamagami, in Tokyo.

||||| And finally, the Horror Portfolio, and President Obama wants to see Betty White's long form birth certificate...